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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Why I'm Suddenly Addicted to Mashup Music

When it comes to some aspects of technology, I'm not shy to admit that I'm behind the times. I don't have a Kindle, a Nook or an iPad. My iPhone isn't even two years old--and of course it's the most ancient one of them all. My computer isn't using the latest operating system, and I often ignore the system updates once or twice before actually allowing them to go through.

So it comes as no surprise to me that I only recently fell in love with mashup music (and hopefully, I'm even referring to it correctly). And not just for listening, but for exercising. I'd heard of the mashup at least a year ago, and I always promised myself that I'd explore this genre--if you call it that, again, I'm no expert on music terminology--more. Except I never did. Until last night. I guess you could say that I've disadvantaged myself by not watching Glee. Oops.

The funny thing is that I didn't finally start to explore mashups because I needed or wanted to update my running playlist--we all know how un-often I change that up. It happened by accident. I stumbled upon Soundcloud's mashups while tracking down some tunes for a Spinning playlist, something that would work for an interval workout. The result? I must have downloaded at least 10 of them--and that was after I couldn't download some of my favorites because they had already reached their limit. Adele and Moby. Passion Pit and assorted artists. One Republic and Eminem. Arcade Fire and Blondie. Rihanna and LMFAO. Mumford and Sons, Foster the People and even Michael Jackson. Yes, I have a bit of scattered song selection, but that might help me like the mashups I found even more.

After spending way too much time listening to soundclips, searching artists and even DJs, and clicking the download button, here's why I'll be back for more:

There are a lot of creative geniuses out there.

I'm in love. I almost built an entire 45-minute workout around mashup tunes before deciding that could be overkill for an audience. But there's always my running playlist that could use some editing...between these and RunHundred's suggestions, I'm all set.

Some of these creations make the original hits sound even better. Sure, I found some duds but some of Soundcloud users created pure gems. And that's only one site that I searched.

Why didn't I find Soundcloud until now? But more importantly, why didn't I look up mashup hits before yesterday? Then I'd have even more on my playlist because some had already reached their download limit.

What other sites are out there for finding, and downloading (legally, I hope), more mashups to sample?